This Farming Life

What it means to be an organic farmer in Ireland today … Jenny Young writes about life and work on an organic mixed farm in Co Kildare - and selling its produce. This month Jenny gives us food for thought by comparing subsistence agriculture in Ethiopia with their own high tech Irish farm.

We have just returned from 2 weeks travelling around Ethiopia. While there I saw only one tractor working the fields. Ethiopian agriculture is subsistent, hand to mouth. It looks very difficult and very unproductive.

Oxen still plough the stony fields with wooden ploughs and cattle are driven in circles to thresh grain which is then transported by mule to market. Animals are herded to grazing areas and to water. I don’t think agricultural methods can have changed in Ethiopia over the past 2,000 years.

So back to our ‘high tech’ farm. With two calves born and more than 130 cows still to calve, we are deciding what calving camera to buy. Our old calving monitor has broken and it’s not worth fixing. It is completely outdated now.

There is always a lot of information seeking and debate before we invest in anything on our farm. New calving cameras can be downloaded onto phones and ipads, they can zoom in and have excellent sound. With wifi you can even watch the calving pens from your local restaurant on a Saturday night out!

In the Castlefarm garden the mild January means that our rhubarb is nearly a foot tall, so we and our customers are enjoying this. Most of our young ducks have also started to lay meaning James, the head chef at BrookLodge, is serving our certified organic duck eggs as a special on the Strawberry Tree menu.

It is good to be home surrounded by work and good food. But I know that by April I will need to take another escape from the farm.

Castlefarm Shop is open every week normally on a Friday or Saturday but you need to sign up to facebook, emails or text alerts to keep up to date with opening days and farm specials. To receive our newsletter and news of new products by email please sign up to our email, or text updates or like us on facebook.

Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087 678 5269 Follow us on facebook or on twitter @castlefarmjenny